TOWER GROVE – The PostCards inbin was overrun with spam and the Cyrillic alphabet – who knew four years of Russian would help me wade through questions for a baseball mailbag? спасибо Большое. One email that had the subject line: “Thanks Houston/We Have Liftoff!”

Thought for sure that was a love letter to Brandon Backe. But no.

It was a religious group’s mass email with a space travel pun. Houston? Liftoff? Getit? Dah. (Just wait until…

DOWNTOWN — Cardinals righthander Joel Pineiro strolled into the clubhouse a few minutes ago, team bag slung over his shoulder, and said he’s only a few days away from starting what he hopes is a short rehab assignment.

Pineiro worked five innings Thursday against a team of extended-spring players. He walked one and struck out six, though he said the strike zone was a little more forgiving then he’s going to get in the majors….

DOWNTOWN — The Cardinals four highest minor-league affiliates will open their regular seasons today, and already there was a move of some consequence.

Trey Hearne, who became something of an Internet darling in 2006 with his performance at Low-A Quad Cities, will pitch this season in the Mexican League. The righthander reported to Minatitlan, the same club outfielder Amaury Marti started with last summer. The Cardinals were lacking innings to give the starter, so they…

TOWER GROVE — A little more than a year ago, the Cardinals’ starting rotation was stringing together a ludicrously long streak of scoreless innings. The starters’ ERA for the month was less than 1.00, and dropping because of what one righthander was doing to the Minnesota Twins.

Opposite Johan Santana and facing a lineup that included MVP Justin Morneau and batting champ Joe Mauer, this Cardinal pitcher kept throwing up zeros. He held the Twins to…

JUPITER, Fla. — The major-league season is, oh, not yet two innings old as I start to write this, but all around Roger Dean Stadium and the Cardinals’ complex there’s a quickening of the pace.

The big-league Cardinals are settling into the roster they’ll take north — the brass is having a meeting with the coaches this morning — and the minor leaguers are making their final pitches for a spot on the highest level possible. On Monday,…

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Cardinals stuffed their bus with outfielders for the trip across Alligator Alley to the opposite coast of Florida. Not just the major-leaguers are this trip as Colby Rasmus continues to tagalong days after he was assigned to the minors.

With a designated hitter available and first base unoccupied, the Cardinals can cram into one lineup all five of the outfielders they plan to take north.

Actually, they are the first…

FORT LAUDERDALE — Cesar Izturis is the Cardinals starting shortstop and short of a catastrophic conclusion to what’s been a slow spring, he’ll continue to be the Cardinals starting shortstop right up until and after Opening Day.

The numbers say competition. The Cardinals say otherwise.

Izturis, who has two hits in his first three at-bats today against Baltimore, entered the game with more errors in the field (six) than hits at the plate (five). Contrast that…

(THE SAMPLER) JUPITER, Fla. — It’s an off day for the Cardinals here at Roger Dean Stadium, and that means no baseball is being played on this side of the campus. No major-league baseball that is. The minors are in full swing on the backlots. So, it is with that in mind that today’s snapshots from spring training begins with a minor-league story.

A quick note: There will be two posts here today, back to…

JUPITER, Fla. — The moves made at the major-league level Monday began to have their ripple effect on the minors Tuesday. The Cardinals placing Colby Rasmus and Joe Mather on the Memphis roster makes for a crowded house in the Triple-A outfield, where Cody Haerther, Nick Stavinoha and Amaury Marti were already slugging it out for playing time.

Rasmus and Mather will play, no doubt. Rasmus in center. The others …

The Cardinals also expect the infield…

JUPITER, Fla. — The location was an actual stadium, the hitters weren’t swinging aluminum bats this time, and the competition was a little more intense than, say, facing the Anteaters again, but Kyle Lohse still showed he’s been doing enough on his own that he’s game ready.

The Cardinals put their newest acquisition on the main field and against Class A hitters to see how far along he is and if they can accelerate him through two spring starts…